PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The image of watching Troy Polamalu cry while wiping tears with a Terrible Towel is something that is hard to forget. Polamalu emotional on Sunday when discussing writing his enshrinement speech this summer.
Polamalu said he was nervous about putting his thoughts into words. He didn’t want to disrespect anyone. There is so much that he wanted to say. He needed to make sure that he mentioned everyone. That all felt appreciated.
“I get a little emotional because what I realize is I was nervous about my speech,” Polamalu said with his voice quivering. “When I shared it with her. She says ‘you were going to write that?’ I was like that’s why I was so nervous.”
Polamalu said he ended up writing the speech with his wife, Theodora. He couldn’t procrastinate because his TV was broken and no one would come fix it because Polamalu had COVID at the time. So they dove into it.
“I also realized that when we worked on it together,” Polamalu said. “It was a beautiful indication of my career. I’ve had such great feedback about the speech. I couldn’t claim it as my own because my wife and I did it together. What I realized, I could only get so far, it’s my wife and I together. It brings everything to fruition.”
Not About Heinz Field
You may be surprised that Polamalu said it really wasn’t special walking into Heinz Field. He explains being back here is more than just the stadium.
“This community was really family to me,” Polamalu said. “Whether it was many of the high school stadiums that I’ve watched football teams that I wasn’t associated. Just a fan of Western Pennsylvania football, being in those crowds. Raising my kids in youth sports here.”
“This city and this team are so symbiotic. For me to go into the stadium, it doesn’t feel any different than in Giant Eagle. It’s Pittsburgh. It’s home. I never saw myself really as just a Pittsburgh Steeler, but just as a member of this community.”
Best memories
Polamalu also didn’t recall some of his game-changing plays as his best memories.
“There’s a lot of experiences that just don’t happen on the field that are way more memorable than the ones on the field,” Polamalu said. “The ones on the field are not the plays, but the jokes between the plays. Whether you are talking about how fat or ugly someone is, your own teammates because he messed up his responsibilities. Those are the fun memories.”
“I remember Ryan (Clark) and how much he celebrated after we won the Super Bowl together. I told him you think winning one is hard, try winning two.”
“Same thing, experience that with Jerome (Bettis) in Super Bowl XL. These sort of experiences I really can’t claim as my own. It’s something we experienced together.”